Cross-border crackdown: law enforcement agencies collaborate for Mekong River exercise

The joint exercise command center promptly issued instructions and deployed tasks accordingly: "05 to extinguish the fire and bring back the suspicious vessel, 10, 11 to swiftly pursue the individual fleeing into the river."

Upon learning that the fleeing individual had discarded the suspicious items in the river, amphibious special forces teams were dispatched to salvage the items and secure the evidence. Through interrogation, the criminal suspect revealed the hiding place of the criminal group. The exercise command center deployed a clearance operation based on reconnaissance and location analysis.

"Bang!" With a gunshot, four teams launched simultaneous assaults on different rooms, detaining three criminal suspects and shooting dead another suspect attempting to harm a hostage. They also discovered and reported that the leader of the criminal group had fled. A land-based team then dispatched and apprehended the leader, which led to the seizure of many incriminating items.

The exercise lasted 60 minutes and included a waterborne formation of law enforcement vessels.

Since 2017, the law enforcement departments from China, Laos, Myanmar and Thailand have initiated the Vision series of joint exercises focusing on themes such as drug control, counter-terrorism and combating transnational crime. So far, eight exercises have been conducted.